Mark Melancon. It sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Giants fans are still getting to know their newest closer and Mike Krukow called into Murph and Mac on Tuesday to give the Bay Area a better idea of what type of pitcher San Francisco just signed.
“What Melancon can do, is he’s a strike thrower, number one. He has a high velocity, you’ll see an 90-92 MPH cutter. A lot of cutters,” said Krukow. “A very good breaking ball, a slider that’s a strike-out, swing-and-a-miss on both sides of the plate. And he puts the ball on the ground.
“So a strike-thrower, that puts the ball on the ground, that can get a strikeout and basically keeps the ball off the barrel of the bat. That’s a commodity. He’s a bull. He works quick. He’s a guy that you’ll see some quick ninth innings. He doesn’t Jimmy Jack around.”
Unlike some of the other big names on the Giants’s roster, Melancon was a slow star in the making. After being drafted by the Yankees in the ninth round of the 2006 draft, he spent several years in the minors made his MLB debut in 2010 and didn’t become a full-time relief pitcher until 2011 with the Astros. He then spent a year with the Red Sox, before finally breaking out with the Pirates in 2014.
“He’s a guy who kind of paid his dues. He kind of learned at the big league level,” Krukow said. “He always had a good arm. When he first got to the big leagues, he was a flame-thrower, he was a mid-to-high 90’s guy. But he learned the cutter, he perfected the breaking ball and he sort of evolved as a big league pitcher. Now he’s one of the best closers in the game and he wears a Giants uniform. I’m thrilled with it.”